Journal

To Give or Not to Give

I’ve been involved with youth work in various ways: I’ve taught kids to use Photoshop, I’ve helped out at a youth café on a Friday night by cleaning up vomit and talking to intoxicated teenagers. But never have I been involved by directing a short documentary, until I came across a program called Eight Million Stories.

Houston’s leading branding agency Pennebaker approached me with an idea of making a short video for Eight Million Stories, an alternative more attentive educational program for juvenile offenders in the Houston area. The main objective of Eight Million stories is to cut the school-to-prison pipeline and give young people a true second chance in life. After talking to the program director Marvin Pierre and learning how he gave up his Wall Street career for the good of these teenagers, I was inspired to volunteer. Not just for the purpose of telling their story but giving Marvin and his staff an effective tool to get more funding and volunteers.

With Pennebaker and an impressive team of industry volunteers we set to produce a film with a mission. To serve its purpose best when shown at events or shared online, we needed to keep it short. A micro documentary you might call it. We needed to make a difference between to give or not to give in a few short minutes. Just the kind of challenge I love.